I was not feeling well a few days ago, and after seeing the doctor and resting at home for the day, I decided to cook Seafood Japchae (Korean style glass noodles) for dinner. A simple dish that’s easy to cook and mild in taste (not spicy at all). You can cook it either with seafoods such as prawns, mussels, octopus or sliced fish. You could also substitute seafoods items with either beef or chicken bulgogi. This simple glass noodle dish named as Japchae is one of my favourite Korean foods 🙂

Method:
1. Blanched the spinach after washing them thoroughly. Tossed and squeeze out excess water and then cut the spinach about 2 inches lengthwise.
2. Soak tanghoon in very warm water for about 10 mins or till soft. Drain dry.
3. In a small pan, add a bit of oil and stir fry the garlic and onions. Then add the prawn. Season with salt and pepper. Once the prawn is cook, scoop out and put aside.
4. Using the same pan, add a bit of oil, stir fry the carrots, bell peppers and spinach separately. Each time season with salt and pepper to taste. Put aside.
5. In a big bowl, add the tanghoon and the other ingredients. Pour the sauce and using a glove, mix all these together. Usually at this point, I would taste and see if I need to add anymore salt/pepper to adjust the taste.
6. Scoop the japchae into serving plates. Serve either while its warm or cold.

Today, the R mood (rajin) overshot a bit …. hahaha…
For brunch, I baked homemade Artisan Bread and ate it with minced beef stew which I cooked early this morning.

The bread I made last night, after proofing for 2 hours, I put it into the fridge and before I began to cook the stew, I took out the dough and knead them, and then proof them again … after which they went into the oven. The recipe for the bread can be found here.

So today, fresh homemade bread and stew awaits us 🙂

The beef stew with the bread

I love the stew, easy to cook and tasty too! Would have made it more spicy but if I did so then my youngest daughter will not be able to eat it and so… “shrug” … more important it still tasted good 🙂

Method:
– In a medium pot, add a little bit of oil.
– Add in the minced beef, stir fry for about 5 mins.
– Add in the onions and garlics. Keep stirring for another 5-8 mins.
– Add in all the other ingredients except for cornflour.
– Let the stew simmer till potatoes and carrots are cooked.
– Once the carrots and potatoes are soft, add the cornflour. Stir well.
– Taste the stew and do any adjustment to the taste as required. At this point, sometimes I would add either more tomato sauce or salt and pepper etc.
– Off fire and serve hot with either bread or rice.

Taco cupsThis easy to make taco cups are simply delicious!!! I made them today and serve them to my eldest daugther and her friend who had came over to our house to work on their school project. The girls simply raved about the taco cups … Lala, my daughter’s friend even asked for the recipe 🙂

A BIG Thank You to all those peeps out there who had shared this recipe over FB…. 🙂

these disappeared in a flash …. the kids could not get enough of them! 🙂I had tweaked the recipe a bit to suit my taste though hehee …

Seasoning:
2 tsp of Chilli powder (more if you like it hotter)
2 tsp of Cumin powder
2 tsp of Garllic powder
a dash or two of dried oregano leaves
black pepper powder to taste
salt to taste

the fillings ….Method:
– Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
– In a large skillet, brown the minced beef. Season with all the seasoning. Off fire and transfer to a big bowl.
– After the beef has cool enough, add the other ingredients such as tomatoes, capsicum, chillies and coriander leaves. Mix well.
– Cut flour tortillas into a square shape and cut further into 4 smaller equally sized square pieces.
– Grease muffin tin with a bit of olive oil or cooking spray.
– Line each muffin cup with a tortilla sheet.
– Add 1 tbsp of the taco filling. Top with a small bit size of cheese.
– Then add another layer of the tortilla sheet, press down and add 1 tbsp of filling and cheese.
– Lightly brush the top edges of the tortilla with olive oil.
– Bake 18-20 mins until golden brown.

Note : Best to serve while its still warm (cos that’s when the side crust are still crunchy)

The whole house smells good … hmm … yumss!!! I simply love the smell of oats and bananas that’s coming out from the oven right now. Alhamdulillah, it’s really great to be at home and be able to do a bit of baking 😉

Oats and Bananas cookies

I am now in the midst of baking the “breakfast cookies” shared by “Spend with Pennies”. It’s suppose to be a healthy breakfast cookies but I choose to bake it for a teatime instead 😉

I opt out of using choc chips since I do not have them in the house. The cookies are the kind that is soft and since no sugar are added, thus, they are not sweet yet I like the taste … thanks to the bananas, raisins and oats.

Method:
– Preheat oven to 190 degree C.
– Mix all ingredients in a large bow till well combined.
– Place a tablespoon of the mixture onto a parchment lined pan (or you can just use non-stick baking pan) and gently press with a fork.
– Bake for about 15-18 mins or until lightly browned.
– Cool completely.

Add chicken back to the skillet, add pesto, stir to coat on low-medium heat until chicken is reheated, 1 or 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add halved cherry tomatoes, mix with the pesto and the chicken. Add chicken and tomatoes to the serving plate with asparagus.

Method:
– Preheat oven at 200 degree C.
– In a saucepan, melt the butter and saute the onions, capsicums and sausages for about 3-4 mins. Off fire and let it cool slightly.
– In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk and cheddar cheese and the sauteed ingredients.
– Add the salt and black pepper and mix well.
– Spoon the mixture into muffin cups or quiches molds
– Bake till cook for about 10-15 mins in the oven.

Note: I baked my quiches using aluminium molds but if using muffin cups or molds, do grease them a bit before adding the mixture.

Method:
– Saute the 15 red chilies with a little oil and then blended with the coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds.
– In either a medium or big pot, heat oil and saute the screwpine leaves till fragrant.
– Add in the cardamon seeds, anise stars and cinnamon sticks. Stir for a few minutes before adding the blended onions, ginger and garlic. Fry them till fragrant
– Add in the blended chillies with the spices. Stir and fry for another 10 mins.
– Add in tomatoes, mint leaves, coriander leaves and salt to taste. Stir well.
– Add in the blended almonds and yogurt, red and green chillies and tomato puree. Mix well,
– Add in the lamb chops and water. Stir well and let it simmer till the lamb chops are cooked and tender. Make sure the fire is medium low.
– Once lamb chops are tender and the gravy has thickens slightly, off the fire.
– Serve with either rice or french loaves.

I got this recipe via Facebook, originally posted by Alinah Ali. I decided to try it out since a few months back I had bought a donut mould baking tray. The funny thing is that when I had finished making the batter, and had already poured into the donut mould, I suddenly realised that the tray could not fit into my oven hehee… so I quickly empty the tray and transfer the batter into a different baking tray.

The donut shape tray

Alas, my intention to have perfectly baked donut could not materialised huhu…. Such a pity!

(I used a mixture of fresh blueberries and raspberries about 60 g in total, I added 2 tbsp of sugar to be coated to the fruits)
I also added a handful of chocolate chips as requested by my youngest girl 🙂

Method:
– Grease the baking tray with butter (I used olive oil)
– Add ingredients A and B and mix well using a whisk.
– Add in ingredient C and mix well.
– Pour into the baking tray and baked for about 12-15 mins in the oven or till cook at 180 degree C.

Ok this is a simpler recipe of Fried Tom Yam Bee Hoon … I usually fry this using tom yam paste but inspired by my cousin during the Eid visitation to her house, I decided to try out myself.

Fried Tom Yam Bee Hoon

Alhamdulillah ….It turns out good! …. “sedapp” as claimed by my daughter and her friends 🙂

It is mild in the form of the tom yam flavour compared to if I’m using the tom yam paste itself …. but thanks to the flavour of lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, you can still taste the likeness of tom yam in it.

Method:
– Heat oil in a wok.
– Saute the sliced onions, lemongrass, garlics, birds-eye chilies, kaffir lime leaves and coriander leaves till fragrant.
– Add in water, beef or chicken cube and osyter sauce.
– Let in simmer for a few minutes, then add in salt to taste.
– Stir well and then add in the prawns and fishcakes.
– Mix well and then once the prawns are cooked, add in the chye sim and bee hoon.
– Stir and mix well till bee hoon has soften to your preference.
– Finally add in the capsicums and sliced tomatoes.
– Stir well, off fire and ready to be serve.